list of keyboard notes

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How to Learn Keyboard Notes

Last Updated: January 31, 2023 Approved

This article was co-authored by Michael Noble, PhD and by wikiHow staff writer, Eric McClure . Michael Noble is a professional concert pianist who received his PhD in Piano Performance from the Yale School of Music. He is a previous contemporary music fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation and has performed at Carnegie Hall and at other venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia. There are 11 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 26 testimonials and 82% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 1,702,475 times.

Learning the notes on a keyboard is an essential step towards learning how to play the piano, organ, or MIDI controller. While the shape and order of the notes on a keyboard are always the same, it can take some time to memorize and master them. After you’ve learned where to find notes on the keys, you can start to learn sheet music and practice playing the scales fluidly.

Identifying the Keys on the Keyboard

• Note the pattern of white keys: three white keys enclosing two black keys, and four white keys enclosing three black keys. C is the white key on the left of the two enclosed black keys.
• This pattern is consistent on all keyboards. Every note on the keyboard is represented in this single 12-note octave, which is the term for an interval of notes that appear in the same order. Different octaves are higher or lower in pitch depending on where they are positioned in reference to the middle octave.

• The symbol ♯ is read as “sharp,” [3] X Research source and the symbol ♭ is read as “flat.”
• The white keys are called “natural” tones, and are the main keys used in most songs. The black keys are known as “accidentals,” and contain sharp and flat sounds in tones in between the natural keys.

Black Key Labels

The 1 st black key in the group is C♯ or D♭.

The 2 nd black key in the group is D♯ or E♭.

The 3 rd black key in the group is F♯ or G♭.

The 4 th black key in the group is G♯ or A♭.

The 5 th black key in the group is A♯ or B♭.

• A grand or upright piano has 88 keys, but there are electronic and modified keyboards with 44 or 49 keys. The more keys that a keyboard has, the more octaves the keyboard is capable of playing. [4] X Research source

Interpreting Notation

• On a treble clef, the note directly on the bottom line is E, and the note in between the first and second line is F. The note directly on top of the second line is A, and the note in between the second and third line is B. The pattern continues from there.
• On a bass clef, the note on the bottom line is G, and the note in between the first and second line is A. The note sitting directly on top of the second line is B, with the C note in between the second and third line. The pattern continues as you move up the scale.

• Start by learning the treble clef first, since the right hand is typically required to play most of the notes in beginner or intermediate sheet music.
• The treble scale starts with E at the bottom of the staff, while the bass scale starts with G at the bottom of the staff.

Fun Fact: Some instruments rely on other clefs. The alto clef is used with violas and trombones. The tenor clef is used with the bassoon and cello. [7] X Research source

• A flat line sitting on top of a staff line indicates a rest, which is where you don’t play anything for the duration of the measure. [9] X Research source

• The two numbers directly to the right of the clef are called the time signature . They tell you how quickly you’re supposed to play the notes based on the song’s tempo. [11] X Research source
• Major chords are chords that start in C, while minor chords start in E.

Memorizing the Keys

Tip: Use tape with a texture that you can instantly recognize so that you don’t need to look at the keys to find your scale.

• On a bass clef, the order of the keys translates easily to the phrase “Good Boys Do Fine Always” for the notes on the lines, and “All Cows Eat Grass” for the notes in between. [14] X Research source

• This is a good way to internalize the sound of notes and will come in handy when you eventually want to picture what sheet music sounds like in your head.

• Start by practicing scales slowly and focusing on your finger positions. As you get more comfortable, do your scales faster and faster.

A useful practice exercise: Sit with your back straight and place your right thumb on middle C. Play the next 5 notes, D, E, F, G, A, and B, in order using each finger on your hand. Practice doing this as quickly as possible, then try doing the same thing with your left hand. This will help your fingers get used to the movements required to make the sound of each note. [17] X Research source

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• ↑ https://www.pianoscales.org/the-keyboard.html
• ↑ http://www.piano-keyboard-guide.com/piano-notes.html
• ↑ https://method-behind-the-music.com/theory/notation/
• ↑ https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/a-complete-guide-to-musical-clefs-what-are-they-and-how-to-use-them/
• ↑ https://blog.sheetmusicplus.com/2016/03/02/learn-how-to-read-sheet-music-rhythms/
• ↑ https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/a-complete-guide-to-chord-symbols-in-music/
• ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovM0_74zoLw
• ↑ https://www.musicnotes.com/now/tips/how-to-read-sheet-music/
• ↑ https://www.joytunes.com/blog/music-fun/best-way-memorize-piano-notes/
• ↑ https://www.key-notes.com/blog/ear-training
• ↑ https://youtu.be/tQh3-WBzaKY?t=75

About This Article

To learn the notes on a keyboard, find a set of 3 white keys enclosing 2 black keys, followed by 4 white keys enclosing 3 black keys. This pattern is consistent for all keyboards. The first white key in the set is the C key, and the next white key is D, then E, F, G, followed by A, B, and C again. The black keys are a half-note between the white keys. The black key between C and D is either C sharp or D flat, the key between D and E is either D sharp or E flat, and so on. There is no black key between B and C or E and F. If you want to learn how to recognize different octaves on a keyboard, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Piano Note Chart

We have the most comprehensive Piano Note Chart available for download. Below is a download of the chart which contains a layout of piano keys.

The chart shows the piano keyboard along with the grand staff. It shows each note on the staff and what note on the piano that goes along with that note.

Also, we have a chart showing the treble clef notes and bass clef notes. These charts are helpful so you can remember the notes that fall on the lines and the spaces on the treble and bass clef.

The Piano Note Chart

Here is an image of the piano chart. This chart is an easy to use reference guide that will show you the notes on the staff, and where they are on the piano keyboard.

Click Here to download a PDF version of the Piano Note Chart.

The Piano Staff

The staff is made up of two clefs, the  treble clef  and the  bass clef.  Each clef tells the musician which hand they should use to play each note. The treble clef, (the top row) is to be played with the right hand, and the bass clef, (the bottom row) is to be played with the left hand.

These two staves are joined together to make what is called the  grand staff.

Treble Clef and Bass Clef

These two staffs have notes that lay on either a line or a space. This tells us which note to play on the piano keyboard.

Use the piano note chart below to help you find the notes that fall on the lines and spaces on the treble clef and bass clef.

Treble Clef Spaces

Treble Clef Lines

Bass Clef Spaces

Bass Clef Lines

These charts are great to help beginners remember the note names on the piano keyboard.

Learning Piano Keys

Learning the piano keys amy seem difficult but it is actually very easy. There are only twelve notes that you need to learn.

Once you learn these twelve keys all you have to do is repeat them all the way up the piano keyboard. If you need a more extensive lesson on piano keys check out our lessons on  piano keys.

If you are still struggling to find the keys and where they are located on the piano you can us our  Piano Key Chart.  This chart is great to learn the notes and the pattern of the piano keys and did I mention its free to download!

Finding C On The Piano

On the piano note chart I have included Middle C. If you can find C on the piano then you should be able to label all of the other notes.

If you sit at your piano keyboard and find the two black notes that are together and move to the white note that is to the left of them you have found middle C.

If you look up and down the piano keys and find the two black notes together and move one note to the left you will always be on a C. This is helpful because all of the notes on the piano keyboard repeat over and over again. Look at piano keyboard diagram that we have included and you will notice how C repeats itself.

Knowing where middle C is important because this is generally where the notes split between staves. Middle C can be played with the right hand or the left hand, it depends where the note falls on the staff. If it is on the treble clef then you play it with the right hand, if it is on the bass clef then you play it with the left hand.

This note is most generally where the two clefs split. However, this is not always the case.

As you start learning more advanced piano music you will sometimes see that you will need to play some notes lower than Middle C with the right hand and some notes that are above Middle C with the left hand. It all depends on what is more comfortable for the player and what each hand has to play at a certain moment.

If you have to play a high note and a note that is close to Middle C, you will most likely play the high notes with the right hand and the notes around Middle C with the left hand.

I hope these charts have been helpful. Make sure to print it off and set it next to your piano or keyboard are a music tool to help you.

Go From  Piano Note Chart  Back to  Free Piano Lessons Back to  Home Page

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Piano Keyboard Diagram - Layout Of Keys With Notes

In this lesson we will take a look at various piano keyboard diagrams. We will learn all about the layout of keys on the 88 key piano as well as keyboards with less keys. 

We will look at 88-key, 76-key, 61-key, 49-key, 37-key, 36-key and 32-key keyboards . Sounds like a lot of keyboards, but the principle behind the layout of keys on every piano keyboard is the same. If you know the layout of keys on a piano, it doesn't matter how many keys your keyboard has, the layout of keys are similar. 

Here's a blank piano keyboard diagram . This one has only 36 keys. 

Here's another 36-key diagram/keyboard layout . 

Do you see how the white keys are labeled? It's really  the same 7 notes being repeated over and over . These are all the notes of the musical alphabet, and these notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, G. 

Highly Recommended : Go here for the BEST piano/keyboard course I’ve seen on the Internet.

When one first looks at a piano, the keys can seem overwhelming. But in fact, it's not. It's the same pattern of keys being repeated. No matter how many keys your keyboard comes with, this is the note pattern of the white keys on a piano. 

So how about the black keys ? I want you to notice something else about the pattern of keys on your keyboard. If you take a good look at the black keys you will realize that it's a pattern of a set of two black keys followed by a set of three black keys, followed by two black keys, followed by three black keys and so on. This keeps repeating depending on the number of keys that your keyboard or piano has.

Let's label the black keys. Each black key in the piano keyboard diagram below has two note names. There's D-Flat (or C-Sharp), E-Flat (or D-Sharp), G-Flat (or F-Sharp), A-Flat (or G-Sharp) and B-Flat (or A-Sharp). 

What does sharp and flat really mean? To help you understand this better let's talk for a moment about what is known as a semitone . A semitone is also called a half step or half tone and is the smallest interval in Western music. It is the distance between two notes which are next to each other in pitch. For example, the distance between C and C sharp is a semitone. The distance between D and D Flat is also a semitone. 

The note which is one semitone higher than C is C sharp. On piano, this is the black key to the immediate right of C. The note which is one semitone lower than D is D flat. On piano, this is the black key to the immediate left of D. But isn't this the same key? Why do they have different names, you might ask. There's a term used to describe this and it's called enharmonics. C sharp and D flat are enharmonic equivalents because while they are played by the same key, they have different note names. Sharp means that the note is a semitone higher, while flat means that it's a semitone lower. 

Notes can also be a whole tone apart. For instance D is a whole tone higher than C. C is a whole tone lower than D. E is a whole tone higher than D. D is a whole tone lower than E. And so on. A whole tone is a distance of two semitones. 

It's really only 12 keys being repeated over and over on a piano. A 12-key pattern. Don't let a piano's many keys overwhelm you. It's really that simple. These 12 keys consist of 7 white keys and 5 black keys. And that's all. As we saw earlier the 12 notes are C, C-Sharp (or D-Flat), D, D-sharp (or E-Flat), E, F, F-Sharp (or G-Flat), G, G-Sharp ( or A-Flat), A, A-Sharp (or B-Flat), and B.

Take a look at the pattern of two and three black keys once again. You will notice that the note, C always comes before a group of two black keys, while F always comes before a group of three black keys. 

This takes us to a note or key that is very important when learning to play the piano. This note or key is Middle C . As the term middle C suggests, on piano or keyboard, middle C lies around the middle of your keyboard. In music notation, middle C is in the center of the grand staff, between the treble and bass staves (which is plural for staff). 

Piano Keyboard Diagrams  - 32, 37, 49, 54, 61, 76 and 88 Key

Let's now take a look at different piano keyboards, each with a different number of keys. Please note that while an 88 key piano or keyboard starts with the note, A, other keyboards start with either C, E or F. 

Here are two 32 key keyboards. One starts with C while the other starts with the note F. 

Here are two 36 key piano keyboard diagrams. Likewise, one starts with C while the other starts with the note F. 

Here are two 37 key keyboards. Similarly, one starts with C while the other starts with the note F.

This takes us to a 49 key keyboard. 49 key keyboards usually start with the note, C. Also the last note on this keyboard is C. On a 49 key keyboard, there are 5 C's. 

Here's a 54 key piano keyboard diagram. Like 49 key keyboards, this keyboard starts with the note, C. But it ends with the note, F. 

61-key keyboards start on C as well. They start on C and end on C. There are 6 C's on this keyboard.

The first note on a 76 key keyboard is E. The last note is G. There are 6 C's on this keyboard.

And as we said earlier, the 88 key piano starts with the note A. The last note on an 88-key keyboard is C. There are 8 C's on an acoustic piano or 88 key digital piano or keyboard.

If you understand the 12-key pattern on a piano keyboard, you will have no problem labelling any keyboard. It's all about repetition!

There is really no difference in labeling any keyboard no matter how many keys it has. What you need to do is to recognize that there are two black keys then a gap with no black key, then 3 black keys, a gap with no black key, then 2 black  keys, and the pattern keeps repeating over and over. If you keep this picture in mind, it will help you remember the notes on your keyboard. 

I trust that you have a clearer understanding on this topic (Piano Keyboard Diagram/Layout) and know how to label the keys on a piano keyboard .

Go here to learn about the best course I've seen for learning to play keyboard and piano. It's called Piano For All.

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Piano Keys Chart for Beginner Piano Students

One of the best things about beginning to learn piano is that the keys are easily laid out for you. Unlike other instruments that take time to learn all the various positions and embouchure techniques for different notes, the piano keys are all there in front of you waiting to be played. That’s not to say that becoming a proficient piano player is quick and easy, but it does make the beginning stages of learning a bit easier. Use this piano keys chart to learn the note names and their corresponding places on the staff and you’ll be on your way to playing piano in no time!

Piano Keys Chart: The Keyboard

A full piano keyboard consists of 88 keys spanning seven octaves plus a minor third. While every pitch will sound different, the notes repeat in a series ranging from A-G. The distance between a note and the next time that note repeats on the keyboard is called an octave. So, for example, C-C is an octave. On the piano keys chart above, we’ve pulled out a section of the keyboard and labeled all the keys with their letter names. Notice that there are five black keys, broken into a set of two and a set of three. On the full keyboard this pattern repeats seven times, hence the seven octaves. Once you know the note names for the 12 keys shown above you’ve learned the entire keyboard!

Accidentals and Enharmonics

You may have noticed that some notes have a b or a # next to the letter name. The b represents flat notes and the # represents sharp notes. Music moves in steps going up or down in pitch. When talking about steps, especially in relation to scales, we talk about half steps and whole steps . Sharps and flats raise or lower a note by a half step respectively, and the space between notes that are next to each other on the keyboard is a half step. Normally this is a black key to a while key, but between E and F and between B and C there is no black key. Therefore, the space between those two sets of notes is also a half step. Listen to the example below. The first notes are a half step (specifically C to D#) and the second notes are a whole step (specifically C to D).

You probably also noticed that some keys have more than one note name. Notes that sound the same but have two different names are known as enharmonic notes. The reason for this is because music is written in keys. The key a piece is written in will determine which notes are sharp or flat, and keys are based on their corresponding scales. Scales come in many different variations but for now we’ll just stick with major scales to keep things easy.

Scales and Keys

A scale is made up of a series of half and whole steps that span an octave. No matter what instrument you choose to play (and this includes voice!) scales will be an important part of your learning and practice routine. This is because scales and keys make up the foundations of music theory and help us understand how music is written.

Going back to our piano keys chart, take a look at the white keys starting with C. If you play all the white keys from C to C, you will have played a C Major scale.

As you can see, the C Major scale is made up of 2 whole steps, a half step, 3 whole steps, and another half step. The cool thing about this is that once you know the formula you can play any Major scale. So, for example, if you start on Bb, the Major scale would be Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb. Even though Eb and D# are enharmonics, since we started on Bb we continue the trend and call that note an Eb when writing the scale. Conversely, if we start on D, the Major scale would be D, E, F#, G, A, B,C#, D. Even though we started on a natural note (a note with no sharps or flats), because E to F# keeps the scale in order, we will notate it with sharps instead of the enharmonic flats (Gb and Db). When you begin reading music, these patterns will help determine the key a piece is played in.

Putting Notes on the Staff

The last step to our piano keys chart is learning how the notes of the piano translate to sheet music. There are two different clefs  you will need to learn in order to play piano: bass clef and treble clef. The lower notes on the piano will normally be notated on the bass clef and the higher notes on the treble clef. The two clefs do intersect as treble clef goes down and bass clef goes up. The place where the cutoff generally occurs is at Middle C. In the image below, you can see where Middle C is on the staff in relation to the keyboard. The notes on this Grand Staff follow the white notes on the keyboard. While there are lots of different ways to remember the notes on the staff, once you know where C is you can figure out where any other note is by following the alphabet.

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Laura is a classically trained full lyric soprano who lives and works in New York City. She holds a BM from Binghamton University and an MM from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, both in Voice Performance. She also maintains the Musika Blog. Her teaching profile can be found here

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Simplifying Theory

Notes for Keyboard and Piano

In this article you shall learn:

• The names of the musical notes
• Where to find the notes on keyboard and piano
• Techniques for memorisation of the notes, and for finding them quickly
• Representation of the notes in chord letters and scores

The names of the seven musical notes

To start the study, the first thing you need to do is to learn and memorise the sequence of  musical notes . In this sequence, we will find seven simple notes, without any alterations. You will surely have heard of them before:

Do  re   mi   fa   sol   la   ti

If you have not yet memorised this sequence, take some time for this before moving on.

The location of the seven musical notes on the keyboard

The seven basic musical notes are on the white keys of the keyboard or piano:

However, a question lingers. If there are only seven notes, why do keyboards have more than seven keys?

In fact, what happens is that these same seven notes repeat themselves along the other keys, following to the lowest pitched region of the instrument to the region with highest pitch:

This explains why the keys have the same names but different sounds .

And what are the black keys?

The seven musical notes may undergo changes. This means that we can either add or remove a semitone  from them. When we do this, they become a flat  (if a semitone is removed) or a sharp (if a semitone is added). The symbol used to represent a sharp note is the hash sign (#), while a flat is indicated by a stylized lowercase b, ♭. This means that we have five possible alterations:

Do# or Re ♭

Re# or Mi ♭

Fa# or Sol ♭

Sol# or La ♭

La# or Si ♭

This means that the back keys are nothing more than the following five alterations:

How to memorize and quickly find the notes on the keyboard or piano

To memorize the notes on the keyboard or piano, you just need to realize that there are two groups of black keys on the keyboard. These groups shall be a reference so that you can find any note you wish:

Take some time to visualize and touch the two groups on your keyboard. Then notice how the note   do  is always attached to the first key of the first group, and to  fa , in the second group.

Practice playing all the do notes on your keyboard, following this model. Then, play all the fa notes.

If you manage to learn the pattern by heart ( do is always next to group 1, while fa is always next to group 2), you shall also be able to find the other notes in next to no time.

For example, if you want to find mi , you just need to count two white Keys after do . If you want to find sol , then it will be one after fa ;

How are the notes represented?

The notes can be represented through letters or through scores.

In the system of letters, each letter corresponds to one musical note:

As you can see, the letters do not bring any information about the pitch of the note. For this reason, they are usually used to represent chords instead of independent notes.

Score – Sheet music

Each space, and each line on the  stave , represents a new note using the instrument:

It is possible to represent all the notes of the instrument, by using the score. The  treble clef is normally used to represent the notes from the middle to the right-hand tip , and the bass clef , from the middle to the left-hand tip of the keyboard.

Did you like this article? Then you may like:

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Notes On The Piano Keyboard – Detailed Piano Note Charts

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Table of Contents

Learning the notes on the piano is one of the first things you do when learning to play the piano . When you first look at a piano and see all of the keys, this can be discouraging; however, a lot of repetition is involved, making it simple.

Before you can learn to read music, you will want to familiarize yourself with all of the piano notes. This article will present a  piano note chart  that you can print and put next to your keyboard/piano to help you visualize.

It is important to note that whether you have an acoustic piano with 88 keys or a digital piano/keyboard with fewer keys, the notes will remain the same; only the starting notes can vary.

By the end of this article, you will have a complete understanding of  piano notation , layout of the piano, and you will also develop an understanding of the notes on the  treble clef  and bass clef.

I’ve put this article together because I have over 20 years of experience playing the piano and six years of touring in a band, and I want to help people learn to play the piano. 

Piano Notes VS Electronic Keyboard Notes

It’s important to note that notes do not change from pianos to keyboards. The only thing that can change is that the keyboard may have fewer notes.

The structure of the notes themselves will always remain the same.

For example, you can see keyboards with 49 or 61 keys. These notes will be arranged in the same manner; however, they might start on a different starting note.

While the note structure will be the same between pianos and keyboards, the size of the keys can vary.

How Many Different Piano Notes Are There?

There are a total of  12 piano notes.  There are  seven  black notes and  five  white notes. While the notes reflect different key signatures, the easiest way to present the notes is as followed:

The white keys are: C,D,E,F,G,A,B . It is important to note that the starting note C is also located in the middle of the keyboard. You will often hear musicians refer to this is as “ middle C .”

While there is a more technical way to do this, let’s break this down in the most straightforward manner. 

The five black keys names change depending on whether you are raising the note ( sharp ) or lowering the note ( flat ). 

Another way to look at this is if you are going to the right or to the left. This is also how the circle of fifths is built. When you move to the right, you will be using sharps, and when you move to the left, you will be using flats. Understanding the  order of sharps flats  will help with this.

This means that the black keys would be: C#, D#, F# G# A#. 

If you move to the left of the original note, you get D-flat, E-flat, G-flat, A-flat, B-flat. 

The  circle of fifths  is a deep subject that you won’t need to understand immediately. 

How Many Keys Are There On A Piano?

There are a total of 88 keys on pianos. A digital piano can vary from as little as 25 keys to 88.

This being said, there are only 12 different notes to memorize.

Most portable keyboards will have 61 keys that are semi-weighted/velocity sensitive.

Wrapping Up

Understanding basic piano notation is the first step to learning to play the piano. Keep at it, and don’t lose focus.  Once you understand where all of the notes are located on a piano keyboard, you can start to focus on techniques.

Enjoy the experience and memorize the notes of the piano as quickly as you can to speed up your journey.

Chris Senner

Chris Senner is a passionate keyboardist, songwriter & blogger from Milwaukee, WI. He's toured the country with Vinyl Theatre & now has developed a passion for writing about all things keyboards.

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Piano notes: the ultimate guide to learning to read sheet music.

There’s more to a piece of music than notes, rests, and repeats. Progress with your work. Read this advanced instruction to reading piano notes.

All cars eat gas. Every good boy does fine. These mnemonics are all well and good, but they’re not that useful when you’re playing a Schubert concerto at 135 bpm.

Between the treble and bass clefs, there are a lot of different musical notes on any given page of sheet music. Reading those piano notes is made even trickier with  additional music symbols .

To help you sight read as easily as you can read a newspaper’s headlines, here’s our advanced guide to Piano Notes II!

Your Guide To Piano Notes

There have been a lot of  fascinating studies  on music and memory in the past few years. Research shows that music actually  helps us remember things . Learning music can even help  children with learning disabilities !

Why not turn that to your advantage?

The trick lies in getting the rational and intuitive side of your brain working together. We’re going to give you a bunch of knowledge to mull over in your rational brain to help you bridge that gap.

We’ll start by reiterating one of the most basic but essential components of how to read sheet music masterfully. Practice makes perfect, just like with any other skill.

Even if you’re not an absolute beginner, it’s helpful to label the spaces and ledger lines with their note names. Fill out some blank staff paper with ‘FACE’ for the spaces and EGBDF(Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge) or ACEGB(All Cows Eat Grass) for the spaces and GBDFA(Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always) for the lines.

Make sure to include the notes above and below the main grand staff, as well.

Spend some time with these notes. You’ll start to internalize the note names, automatically. You’ll be able to recall them just as easily once they’re ingrained in your muscle memory.

Understand the Parts of the Sheet

The first step that you need to undertake is to understand the parts of a music sheet. If this is the first time you have seen a music sheet, there might be some symbols you’re unfamiliar with.

One of the parts that you would notice first is the title of the piece and the author behind it. It’s usually centered along the bottom edge of the top margin with the first letter names of each word capitalized. At times, there may be a subtitle printed in a smaller font with the author names below it.

The next parts you’ll see are the ledger lines. They refer to these as the staff (which we will discuss later). These lines are where you find the notes. All indicating the sound played on the instrument.

For the piano keyboard, the position of the note will tell the pianist which key to press.

You’ll notice various symbols scattered all throughout the sheet. These symbols would denote the counting (time signature) or which set of notes to use (clef). Some of these will need further study to understand how they behave and how you will proceed with the piece.

Now, look at a music sheet. You’ll see that there are two sets or groups of five horizontal lines. These are what you call the “staffs”.

“Bar lines” refer to those vertical lines. The horizontal lines that separate them are the “measures”.

The staff on the top is the “Treble Clef”. The notes you’ll find in here are higher than Middle C. The bottom, called the Bass Clef, is where you’ll find notes lower than Middle C.

Memorize The Note Values

Learn the difference between whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. Learn to differentiate between eight, sixteenth, and thirty-second notes, as well.

Just as a reminder, eighth notes are quarter notes with one flag. Sixteenth notes have two. Thirty-second notes have three.

If there are multiple sub-divided notes in a row, they’ll be connected by a bar. Eighth notes have one bar, with sixteenth notes having two and thirty-second notes having three. Just list their flags.

So, some easy shorthand for remembering the length of note values is to remember how many flags each sub-divided note gets. You’ll easily be able to translate that information for connected notes, as well.

Aside from the other symbols that you would see on the music sheet. The notes are the symbols that denote the specific sound that the instrument should produce. The positioning of each note on the staff will tell you the pitch needed.

But those are not the only things that it indicates. Notes have specific durations and timing that corresponds to the beat of the song. There are varying types of notes that you may encounter as you read through sheet music for piano.

Whole notes tend to have the equivalent of four beats. Half notes have two beats per note. Quarter notes have one note each. Eighth, and Sixteenth notes would denote half a beat and a quarter of a beat.

Not only that, but there are also measures of silence as well. These are Rests and they follow the same rules of duration as Notes. With the combination of each, you would know when to play a key or chord, and when you should leave it quiet.

Practice On Both Clefs

Learning piano requires being able to read both the treble and bass clef fluently. While it’s easy enough to learn one or the other, it can be a bit brain-splitting to do them both at the same time.

We’ve already talked about ‘FACE’ and ‘Every Good Boy Does Fine’. You should be pretty comfortable with the treble clef, at this point.

The bass clef simply shifts everything down two steps. The mnemonic ‘All Cars Eat Gas’ will help you remember the spaces of the bass clef. ‘Good Boys Do Fine Always’ will help you remember the lines.

Now that you’re aware of the note names, start off by practicing each clef independently. Develop a routine for memorizing and sight-reading treble clef note names with your right hand.

Then do the same thing with the left hand for the bass clef.

As we mentioned above, the notes that fall below the Middle C make up the Bass clef. To remain consistent with this learning to read music guide, let’s also start from the bottom.

Put Theory Into Practice

Translating the inky blots on the page through your fingertips into actual music is where the rubber meets the road when it comes to reading piano sheet music. Now that you’ve spent some time writing things out on the page, it’s time to start putting that into practice on your actual instrument.

Start with each clef independently, just like you did when you were first memorizing the piano notes. Stick to your regular practice routine, as well. Remember, practice doesn’t only make perfect, it also makes things permanent.

You’ll want to practice with a metronome if you aren’t already. You need to be as comfortable with rhythm and harmony as you are with melody. You should also stay in the habit of focusing on musicality, even when you’re practicing.

After seeing all the symbols and placement of notes. It is time to identify which note corresponds to the key on the piano. The white keys on the piano would correspond to the keys in the C Scale. Starting from C, followed by the keys D, E, F, G, A, B and ending again at a higher C. You would find them in the white keys on the piano.

The black keys are the ones between some of these white keys. Like the Eb being between D and E. Each of these keys has a place on the staff.

By knowing their positions, you will be able to play the notes in the sequence presented in the sheet music.

When practicing these sequences of notes, start slow until you feel the pace. From that point, that is when you start learning the song in its actual pace and tempo.

You can read more about the  proper reading and interpreting of the sheet  here.

Learn Your Sharps and Flats

When you see a #, that means you should play the next higher note. Say you see a C#. If this was for a Middle C note, that means you’ll hit the black key to the right of Middle C. If you see a Db on your music sheet, you’ll press the same black key.

There tends to have some confusion when it comes to sharps and flats, especially for a lot of beginner piano learners . Always keep in mind that black keys are always either a sharp or a flat. However, not all sharps and flats fall on these keys.

A white key can still be a flat or a sharp, as well as a major note. For instance, the Middle F (the third white key from Middle C) can also be an E sharp. The Middle B can be a C flat.

So, as a reminder, black keys are either sharps or flats. But white keys can also represent sharps and flats.

Learn The Dynamic Symbols

Now that you’ve spent some time mastering both clefs, you should be pretty familiar with the grammar of music. Now you’re ready to start spinning your vocabulary into actual works of art.

Like with language, music isn’t only about what you’re saying, but how you say it. Something whispered is very different from something shouted, even if the words are the same.

To master the dynamic symbols, start with the basics. P stands for ‘Piano’, which means ‘quiet’. Pp is ‘pianissimo’ which means ‘very soft’. Ppp means ‘pianississimo’, which means ‘more than very soft’.

Loudness follows the same formula. F means ‘Forte’, which means ‘loud’. Ff is ‘fortissimo’, meaning ‘very loud’. Fff means ‘fortississimo’, which means ‘more than very loud’.

Dynamics aren’t static on sheet music, either. There can be build-ups and breakdowns, as well. These are marked with crescendo and decrescendo symbols, which look like open-ended triangles on their side.

To truly master the dynamic symbols, find some sheet music for a song that you like. Read through the sheet music, paying special attention to the dynamics. Now go listen to that recording.

Listening to music with sheet music in front of you will help internalize what the different dynamics sound like. You’ll learn to differentiate between Forte and Fortissimo, which will help you reproduce them more faithfully in your own playing.

When you read sheet music, remember to study the basic symbols. While notes are among the ones that you will encounter.

One of the symbols that is the Clef. These are symbols based on the reference pitches. These are often found at the very beginning of every ledger or staff line.

For example, you have the Treble Clef that has the G Clef pitch as the reference. You also have the Bass Clef, which has an F Clef pitch.

You might also recognize key signatures , which have sharp or flat notations. (Represented as # and the lower case b in respective order). The placement of these notations can also tell you which key you will be playing in.

There are also other symbols you should be on a lookout for. Time signatures are the two numbers after the clef, one on top of the other.

The number on top mentions how many beats per measure. While the bottom one denotes the note that equals one beat. The most common time signature is the four-four time signature.

There are also tempo marks, notations that tell you how loud or soft the notes should be. Examples are p for Piano, pp for Pianissimo, f for Forte, mf for Mezzo Forte, and so on.

Spend some time with these exercises, and you’ll be fluent in  reading piano sheet music  before you know it.

Learning to read music is like learning any other language. At first, it’s a lot of work. Then it becomes a tremendous amount of fun, as you’re able to articulate your thoughts and feelings in new and interesting ways!

Don’t Forget Intervals

To determine what this distance is, you only have to count step-by-step from the first note all the way to the next.

You call the interval between the C and the G note a “5th” because there are five notes from C to G. To be more precise, you call this particular interval is a Major 5th.

The interval between C and F is the “Perfect Fourth” or Major 4th. That’s because you have four notes from C to F.

Keep Practicing to Perfect Reading Piano Notes

These six steps are key to reading notes on a music piano sheet, so make sure you start from them. Keep practicing all these, and in time, you’ll master the piano notes as you read them. You may even learn your pieces by heart that you will no longer need to look at the piano keys!

The most important thing in learning the piano , or any other musical instrument for that matter, is motivation and consistent practice. With these, you’ll soon be on your way to playing even more advanced pieces.

Want More Piano Playing Guidance?

Good for you! Learning to play music is one of the most rewarding and satisfying things you can do. You become a better person while making the world a more beautiful and artful place.

We hope you enjoyed our music notes on reading ‘Piano Notes II’. Make sure to browse the rest of our  piano articles  for even more guidance!

Piano notes 101: complete beginner’s guide

This blog has already posted a series of articles touching on interaction with piano sheet music. Together they approach the subject in a range of ways, identifying and tackling different focus areas, such as interpreting staff notation and developing sight-reading skills.

The article aims to bring all these topics into one space, giving you a comprehensive and accessible guide to reading, learning and playing notes for and on the keyboard. 

We’ll be looking at these various questions in context and detail and providing links to these other articles where appropriate, so that you can concentrate on whichever skills you want to hone. 

Here it is, then: the complete guide to piano notes .

What are the notes on a piano?  

Look at a piano keyboard and you’ll see a recurring pattern of black and white keys. Below you can see a graphic of this pattern, indicating the pitch that each key sounds. 

Wherever this grouping appears on the keyboard, the notes will have the names that you can see above - A through G . This is because the pitches and their names cycle round and round, even though any given note will still be higher or lower than another with the same name. This phenomenon is to do with the construction of sound waves and the way our ears perceive them.

The gap between one note and the note above or below it with the same name is called an octave , because one is eight steps away from the other. So, you can think of the image above as a piano octave .

Piano sheet music tells us which keys need to be struck and when, in order to play a particular piece of music. It does this through notes, which correspond to the piano keys depicted above. In order to read and play music, you need to understand the relationship between notes and keys.

The article on piano keys for beginners explores keys in far more detail, so if you’re unsure about anything to do with the keyboard, it should clear things up for you. 

How does that correspond to sheet music?  

The image below shows you how notes appear on a musical stave, what pitches they indicate, and how that all relates to the keyboard you saw above.

Middle C , which is circled above, is the C closest to the centre of the keyboard. From there you can work your way up or down - one white key, and one note, at a time. 

That image will serve as a useful reference tool if you simply want to know how notated pitches relate to a piano keyboard, but if you want to learn how to read a piece of sheet music, then we’ll have to delve a little deeper.

Learning to read piano notes  

Reading and playing through piano sheet music involves more than just identifying notes and playing the corresponding keys. So we’re going to break down staff notation further, so that you can develop a comprehensive ability to read notated piano music.

Staves and clefs  

As you can see in the image above, the notes are written across five parallel lines, known collectively as the stave . Particular musical pitches are fixed to its lines and the spaces in between them. What those pitches are depends on the clef that appears at the far left of the stave.

Piano music is written across two parallel staves of music, known as a grand staff . The upper stave utilises the treble clef , the lower stave the bass clef . There are other types of clef, but pianists will only really need to know these two. The right hand plays the notes that appear on the treble stave, and the left plays those on the bass stave. 

The image above outlines the pitches fixed to each stave by each clef. The two staves run into one another, with middle C positioned halfway between them, as the image above indicates. 

The image below illustrates the corresponding pitches of notes placed on the lines and spaces of a grand staff. By learning the mnemonics shown, you can more quickly commit the notes to memory. Bear in mind that notes can be written above the top stave and below the bottom one - these are written on floating ledger lines .

Accidentals and key signatures  

The notes shown above only take into account the white keys on a piano, which have the standard note names shown. But in between some of the white keys there are black ones. The gap between each black key and the white keys either side of it is a semitone . These can also be referred to as half notes or half steps .

Note that white keys positioned right next to each other - B and C, and E and F - are also just a semitone apart. Gaps of two semitones are known as whole tones - also known as whole notes or whole steps .

Black keys come into play when one of the white notes we’ve already looked at is either raised or lowered by a semitone. This is indicated with symbols known as accidentals . Notes are raised - or sharpened - with a sharp (♯) and lowered - or flattened - with a flat (♭). A third type of accidental, called a natural (♮), cancels out previous sharps and flats.

Looking back to the piano octave above, you can see more clearly how this process works. You’ll notice that each black key can be referred to in two ways - whether it’s a sharp or a flat depends on the musical context.

In sheet music, accidentals appear next to the note that’s to be played, but they can also appear next to the clef at the far left of the stave, as part of a key signature . The image below shows you what key signatures look like, and which keys they refer to. These are arranged in a diagram known as the circle of fifths , which also outlines the relationships between the signatures.

Key signatures can either take the form of a group of sharps, a group of flats, or an absence of either. They not only indicate the key of the piece but also tell you which notes should always be flattened or sharpened in a piece of music - unless a natural symbol cancels this out.

Time signatures and rhythm  

You’ve learned how to read the pitches notated in a piece of music - now you just need to know when to play them. Now we’ll look at how to work and play through notes one after another in real time.

Music is usually played to a pulse, which can be divided into a repeating group of beats. In most cases, there are three or four beats in a group. These beat groupings are written out as bars - or measures . Each bar is separated by a vertical line - a bar line . Below you can see bars and bar lines in action. 

At the far left of the stave, next to the clef and key signature, you’ll see a time signature . This tells you how the beat grouping is constructed, through two numbers. The number at the top indicates how many beats are in one bar, while the bottom number assigns a note value to each beat. We’ll learn more about note values soon. 

The tempo of a piece controls the speed of the beat, or the frequency of its recurrence. This is set above the stave at the beginning of the music. Sometimes, beats per minute - bpm - will be defined exactly, but you’ll also come across tems such as ‘moderato’ that set the tempo more loosely. You can find out more about these terms here . 

Rhythm refers broadly to a piece’s pulse and beat, but it can also describe how long notes sound for against that beat. The term ‘note value’, which we encountered above, refers to the duration of each note relative to the beat. In other words, it indicates how long each note lasts within a bar. 

The diagram below shows you the most common note values, and how their durations all relate to each other. If you ever see a dot next to (and not above or below) a notehead, just increase the length of the note by half its original value.  

With those note values in mind, we can now interpret a time signature. If a piece’s time signature is 3/4, for example, the upper three tells us that there are three beats in a bar, while the bottom four tells us that each beat is equivalent to a crotchet - or a quarter note . That means that there are three crotchets in a bar.

If the bottom number were eight, then there would be three quavers - or eighth notes - per bar. If it were sixteen, there’d be three semiquavers - or sixteenth notes - per bar, and so on. This is just how time signatures work, despite the fact that quarter notes aren't always equivalent to a quarter of a bar.

By bringing the concepts of time signature and note value together, you can interpret a notated rhythm. And by applying what you know about pitch to a sequence of notes, you can begin to fully interpret passages of notated music.

How to read piano sheet music  

This information amounts to the building blocks of reading piano notes, but this other post on how to read piano sheet music not only explores these concepts in more detail, but will also introduce you to a few new aspects as well. It’s definitely worth checking out if anything you read above wasn’t totally clear to you. 

On a slight tangent, something that can really help you to get to grips with notes more easily is composing - you’d be surprised how much it accelerates the learning process. If that’s of interest to you, then find out more about it in this article on how to write piano sheet music .

How long does it take to learn piano notes?  

Reading sheet music is something that anyone can learn to do at any time, but it can be a long process. In effect, it involves becoming fluent with a completely new communication system. It can take years to go from familiarising yourself with the basic principles of musical notation, to being able to quickly interpret and play an entire piece of sheet music.

But that process might also just take a matter of months. Ultimately, it comes down to what exactly it is you want to learn, how quickly you can absorb it, and how much time you can devote to it. It’s woefully cliché, but - as with any other skill - developing this ability requires practice. 

If you’re able to dedicate regular and focused time to learning the notes, it’s possible to commit them to memory fairly quickly, maybe even in a matter of weeks. But developing an ability to instantly interpret piano music, and potentially to play it on sight, will take a lot longer. It takes some players years to get to that kind of level. 

This article - how long does it take to learn to read music - goes into more detail on this, taking into account a range of contexts and objectives. In any case, the most important thing to remember is that it’s a skill that you can acquire by yourself and that’s never too late to turn to. All that’s needed is a bit of determination. 

Reading piano notes faster  

Once you’ve come to terms with the basics of reading sheet music, you’ll be in a position to start working towards being able to comprehend it without thinking. 

At that point, reading notes on the stave will come as naturally to you as reading the words in this sentence. You might want to reach this stage simply so that you can glean musical information as fluently as possible, or you might be looking to hone your sight-reading skills, which would allow you to read and play through a piece right there in the moment. 

In either case, the more time you spend with sheet music in front of you and keys under your fingers, the quicker that knowledge will become cemented. Practice, practice, practice, and before long it’ll all be second nature.

There are a few tips and tricks that you can try out, though, which may encourage faster progress, with regard to reading and to the learning process itself. You can read about these in this article on how to read sheet music faster . 

So far, we’ve focused on basic note recognition, a method that forms the foundation of proficient reading for many musicians. But if this is something you struggle to do at pace, particularly when it comes to piano music written across two staves, then it might be worth trying out some alternative methods to supplement your progress.

Landmark method  

This well-known system of reading music involves focusing on prominent fixed pitches across the grand staff. Centering on middle C, these pitches become the focus of your practice, and you make memorising them your first priority.

They consequently become the anchors on the page and on the keyboard, so that when you see a note in a piece of sheet music, you can identify it based on its position relative to those landmark pitches you can play unthinkingly. You don’t calculate the position of every note, you simply let your visual anchors guide you to notes around them.

Interval recognition  

Interval recognition is a technique used in combination with the landmark method. It works by judging the relationship between one note and the next based on the space, or the interval between them on the page - in other words, the actual shape of the music. 

Once again, you won’t need to hone in on each successive note and identify it. It’s a more intuitive approach, encouraging your fingers to respond to the contour of the material rather than processing individual notes. Crucially, you don’t have to zoom in on the details. By scanning the music instead, you can figure out what it’s saying far quicker and move on.

Pattern recognition  

This approach can be thought of as an extension of interval recognition. It’s based on a similar technique -  you pay attention to the spacing of notes in a passage of music, as opposed to the specific placement of each one. 

But you’re not just looking at the gap between one note and the next - you’re looking at a whole sequence and instinctively understanding what to play based on the shape of the phrase. Certain gestures appear very frequently in sheet music and by focusing on their broader form you’ll soon learn to recognise them immediately.

How to remember piano notes  

Two hugely important things that will help you to commit piano notes to memory: practice and perseverance. Spend time at the keyboard, with sheet music, with the images above - or even diagrams and memory aids you’ve made yourself - and keep practising until it all begins to feel natural. 

Those mnemonics are absolutely crucial - you can see them again below. The sooner you learn those, the sooner you’ll be able to remember your notes. You won’t need them for long - before you know it, you’ll be looking at lines and spaces on the stave and thinking of their associated pitches instantaneously. 

Once you develop a degree of fluency in reading sheet music, you might be looking to remember fuller musical passages rather than individual notes themselves. You might even want to memorise an entire piece, from the first note to the last. 

There are a few useful things you can try in order to memorise music more easily. We’ll cover key techniques below, but you can discover others in this post on how to memorise music . 

Break the music down  

A great way to try and remember longer sequences of notes - and even entire pieces of music - is by breaking the material down into sections, and learning them one at a time. It seems obvious, but simply by physically marking and dividing the material, you’ll be helping your brain to process it all more easily. 

Moreover, this method allows you to give equal focus and attention to each section, and the boundaries between them function like checkpoints, serving to guide you through the music. It allows you to get into the finer detail of every part of the music.

Practise to know, not to memorise  

It seems counterintuitive, but trying too deliberately to memorise a passage of music can sometimes slow the process down. Many musicians say that by instead placing emphasis on really knowing and understanding a piece of music when they practise it, they find that it happens to become lodged in their mind far quicker.

An added bonus of this approach is that by getting familiar with all aspects of a piece of music, you’re in effect practising it in a complete and rounded way. So, when it comes to performance - if that is what you’re working towards - you’ll be able to play the music to an even higher standard. 

Play when you’re not at the piano  

You don’t just have to practise during the time you set aside for piano practice. Each day is filled with little opportunities to visualise the notes and the keyboard, and work through your material. Then, when you’re back at the piano, you might find yourself remembering notes far more easily.

What’s more, visualisation itself is a really valuable technique that aids the memorisation process. Gaining independence from images and learning materials equates to musical information becoming ingrained in your mind and memory.

Identifying piano notes by ear  

This is something that a lot of musicians look to do when they’re learning piano notes. Being able to recognise notes by ear is a nifty trick, and for certain types of performing musicians, it can actually be a really useful and important skill. 

As far as aural ability goes, it’s probably most practical to be able to hear some music and either work it out what it is fairly quickly, or identify whether it’s out of tune. For many, this skill is founded on being able to identify the individual notes themselves. 

This is one of those things that some people can just do naturally. These lucky people have absolute pitch , and this is something that’s developed at a young age. 

However, it is possible to work towards this ability and develop what’s known as relative pitch . This is the ability to identify or sing pitches based on their relationship to a fixed pitch that you can remember, known as a reference tone .

You can do this through sustained music-making - prolonged exposure to and interaction with music. But it’s also possible to work on it in a more focused way. 

You can do this by figuring out a reference note that you can remember reasonably easily and accurately, and calculating the interval between that note and any other given pitch. That said, it’s easier said than done to remember an unmoving reference note reliably.

It’s helpful to work with intervals, because it’s easier to define the distance between two notes relative to each other, than to place one lone note against a fixed pitch that you have to imagine. That’s why, for most musicians, exercising relative pitch involves the use of intervals.

It’s even easier to identify intervals that you can actually hear. All you need to do is figure out the relationship between them - there’s no need to imagine any fixed reference note. 

In time, intervals will become more and more familiar, but thinking of pieces of music that you know can help you to spot them. If two notes sound just like the opening gesture of the theme from Star Wars , for example, then you know they’re a perfect fifth apart.

These abilities can give you a secure footing on the road to understanding and recreating longer, more complex sequences of notes. But this too can be practised purposefully - spend some time listening to fragments of music and trying to reproduce them on the piano. In time, you’ll be able to play what you hear more accurately, more quickly.

But, as we said, you will also gradually develop the ability to work out and recreate music by ear simply by spending time engaging with music practically, whether that’s through practice, performance, listening or composition.

Piano notes practice for beginners  

It’s been mentioned a few times already just how important practice is. If you’re learning about piano notes for the very first time through this article, the only way you’ll absorb and retain what you’ve read here is by practising.

That involves re-reading what you’ve learned, spending time with the graphics provided, and trying to memorise the information, as well as sitting at the keyboard and attaching the theory to the actual physical motions. This last step will allow you not only to transfer this knowledge into piano-playing but also to consolidate the knowledge itself. 

Start with the notes themselves, learning how to recognise them on the stave and play them on the piano. Then learn how to interpret time signatures and rhythms, before then taking on basic pieces of piano sheet music. 

Practising in the right way is so important - it’s not enough to just look at the notes and press the keys. That alone won’t get you to where you want to be. You have to have the right mindset, maintain concentration, utilise the right materials, and structure your time and activity effectively. Practising smart is an art in itself.

There’s a variety of things that you can do and bear in mind in order to maximise your practice and make progress as fast as possible. You can find out what these are in this article on sheet music practice .

For instance, it’s really important to make the most of learning materials. Keeping to hand some of the graphics you’ve seen already will boost your development - they’re there to support and guide you on your journey. But you can also create your own to suit your own unique way of learning and playing.

One thing that might come in handy is this music theory cheat sheet . It’s a great point of reference, explaining some of the things we’ve covered in a more accessible way. And by getting to know the theory, you should more easily understand new musical concepts that you’re bound to encounter later on in the learning process.

The key to learning piano notes  

Just as vital to all this as practice and perseverance are the piano notes themselves. And you can find a whole world of those, in all the wonderful musical permutations imaginable, in nkoda’s collection of piano sheet music.

Whether you want to learn classical or pop, jazz or rock, and whether you want to find some easy playbooks or peruse some mind-blowing concertos, you can do all that and more on the app.

The best advice that can be given to someone who wants to learn to read piano sheet music is: live, breathe and practice it. Find the music that gets you feeling inspired and don’t stop playing it. Start your free trial , and your journey, today.

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Piano Keys 101 – All You Need to Know

piano basics

Pianos are amazing instruments. With over 12,000 parts, moving actions, cases, strings, dampers, all synchronized to magically create music, the actual keys are sometimes forgotten.

Today’s pianos (both digital and acoustic) as well as portable keyboards can be found in many key configurations. The more keys, the greater the instrument’s range. It is significant that they are called “keys” because in music theory, the key of a piece is the group of pitches, or scale that form the basis of a music composition, and might be “Major key” or “Minor key” as well.  Piano keys are the “map” for knowing what notes will sound when the key is struck.

A standard piano has 88 keys, 52 white keys and 36 black keys.

A standard keyboard has 61 keys, 36 white keys and 25 black keys.

Lower-end synthesizers may have as few as 25 keys, although most home-use keyboards come with 49, 61, or 76 keys.

Black piano keys sit higher than and to the rear of the white keys.  Boards are laid out in configurations of seven white keys and five black keys (a total of 12 keys) which repeat across the keyboard.  Note that the black keys form a two-key, three-key pattern which provides the identification of the white keys below.

Musical notes are assigned to the white keys based on the pattern of the black keys above them.  There are seven notes (ABCDEFG) and would look like this.

If you think of the two-black keys as “Chopsticks” and the three-black keys as “Forks”, you will easily remember that C starts with the chopsticks and F starts with the forks.

To the left of the chopsticks (two black keys) is the note C.

To the left of the fork (three black keys) is the note F. ( We love these little memory tricks presented in Piano Keys for Dummies.)

Just to get oriented, let’s use a 29-key keyboard (below) using middle C as our starting point. We’ll find the first white key to the left of the middle chopsticks. That’s middle C:

First strike middle C, then play the next seven white keys in succession, going (to the right) up the keyboard.

C, D, E, F, G, A, B and the next key you played would be a C, one  octave  higher. This is where the pattern of keys repeats itself. You just played a C major scale, in fact. Here are the note names for the C major scale: Moving up from C, you have the notes D, E, F, G. When you get to G, think “Go” as in “go back to the beginning of the alphabet, A and B.”

The most important musical scales are typically written using eight notes, and the interval between the first and last notes is an octave. For example, the C major scale is typically written C D E F G A B C, the initial and final Cs being an octave apart. Two notes separated by an octave have the same letter name and are of the same pitch class.

The black keys are used to identify sharps(#’s) or flats(b’s). When a note is said to be “sharp” or “flat” means to play the next higher key and flat the next lower.

Sharp  is used for a black key to the  right  of (or  higher  than) a white key.

Flat  is used for a black key to the  left  of (or  lower  than) a white key.

Piano keys are laid out in a 12 note pattern (above). While there are many notes on a piano, it’s really 12 notes being repeated over and over. On an 88 key acoustic piano it is repeated over 7 times. The 12 notes are C, C-Sharp (D-Flat), D, D-sharp (E-Flat), E, F, F-Sharp (G-Flat), G, G-Sharp (A-Flat), A, A-Sharp (B-Flat), and B.

Many beginners think that a sharp or flat means a black key.  All black keys are either a sharp or flat, but not all sharps and flats are black keys. The chart above indicates the sharps and whites also on the white keys—logically one key up for a sharp or one key down for a flat.

And here’s a schematic for an 88-key piano board. Note the two white/one black key at the start (A,B) , starting with A which equals 3 keys added to the 7 multiples of 12, and one extra C at the end makes 88 keys.

A Brief History of Piano Keys

Historically  keys can be traced back to little levers used on water organs before the collapse of Rome. Organs continued with variations of levers, some so heavy their players were called “organ beaters.” But organ keys found dating back to 226 A.D. were no heavier than modern keys. The lack of a lightness of touch was an issue in many instruments right up to the 1700’s with Bach himself complaining of Gottfried Silbermann’s iconic pianos.

Standard keyboard layout on a modern Upright Piano

F sharp is likely the first sharp to be added to the keyboard.  A painting by Van Eyck confirms that around 1430 narrower keys were being made than in earlier years, with the use of sharps. Since the mid-thirteenth century, the keyboard hasn’t changed except for small differences in the key-width and key coverings.

Mother of Pearl antique Steinway grand piano keyboard

The white keys (called naturals) were once darker with the sharps white, a custom said to have started in France to better show off the player’s hands. Many and varied materials were  used to cover keys including bone, mother-of-pearl, porcelain, tortoise-shell, silver, boxwood, cedar, ebony, pear and other rare and polished woods.

At times the fronts of the naturals were beautifully carved.

In the latter 1700’s Viennese keys were most often ivory.  Silbermann’s keys were very thick ivory.  In efforts to make cheap lines of pianos, ivory was replaced with cellulose in 1862, simulating ivory, and has been used on the cheapest pianos since then.

Starting in 1959, acrylic plastic began to be used on keys, and in the sixties an embargo was put on ivory. Different countries making pianos had different standards but by the 1970’s ivory in the US was off limits for key coverings.

Digital Piano Weighted Keys

As Bach himself complained about the touch of his keyboards, most pianists today look for a touch that suits them.  Acoustic pianos historically have the lightest and most favorable touch, responsive to the player’s style. Digital pianos, introduced in the 1980’s, offered an electronic solution for traveling performers, for piano budgets, small spaces, and convenience. They didn’t match the acoustic piano in sound or touch, so improvements kept being made to make digital pianos as close to an acoustic as possible. One of the ways this was done was with weighted keys to provide the right resistance to touch, and are more sensitive to speed, pressure and lightness for a range of soft and loud dynamics.

How to Clean Piano Keys

Unless your piano is an antique with ivory keys, a little vinegar, water and a soft cloth are all you need to buff up dirty keys. Try not to use a colored cloth. Be careful not to drip water between the keys; keep the moisture just damp on the cloth. And follow with a dry cloth to buff.

If you don’t know what your keys are, plastic or ivory, the best method is to check the color and surface of the keys. Ivory keys usually have visible lines shaped like semi circles, which are the natural grains of the ivory.  Plastic keys are uniformly white.

With ivory keys, know that they tend to yellow with age and that a typical cleaning will not restore them to white. Ivories should be cleaned with a soft cloth and a very mild solution of dishwashing detergent. It may be possible to whiten them placing them in the sun for a few hours. Before you go this route, be sure to speak with a piano technician who has experience with ivories. The main thing to remember is that piano keys should be cleaned regularly for health reasons.  Little (and big) fingers are magnets for dirt and germs!

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In classical and popular music Music genres with a large number of listeners, such as pop and rock.">popular music , especially from the Western world Collective name for Europe, America, Australia, and New Zealand.">Western world , there are twelve different notes . Seven of these notes are called the natural notes and they are represented by the white keys on the piano. The black keys on the piano represent the remaining five notes.

• Natural notes
• Half steps and whole steps

1. Natural notes

The natural notes are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet. Their names are A , B , C , D , E , F , and G . The names of the notes are always capitalized.

The piano is a helpful aid because it provides a visual overview of the notes. Below is a section of piano keys labeled with their corresponding notes. The starting point is usually based on the note C. This is also the case on the piano here. Click on the piano to listen to the notes:

The black keys are arranged in alternating groups of two and three. The note C is always on the white key to the left of the group of two black keys. Each note is in several places on the piano; the further to the right a note is located, the higher it is, and the further to the left, the lower it is.

Exercises 1

Notes » Piano » Naturals 1 and Naturals 2

2. Middle C

The middlemost C on the piano is called middle C . On a standard piano with 88 keys, middle C is the fourth C from the left. Click on the piano to hear the note:

Middle C is an essential reference point. The specific high or low version of a note you play is important, and using middle C as the reference point, makes it easier to play the right version of the note.

A standard piano with 88 keys has seven to eight versions of each note. The distance from any note to the nearest lower or higher version of the same note is called an octave :

Usually, a note is referred to with the same name, regardless of whether it is low or high. However, there is a system for naming low and high notes that can be used if you need to distinguish between them. In this system, a number is added after the name of the note corresponding to the octave number in which the note falls.

Each octave, starting from the note C, has a number. The octave of the lowest C on the piano has number 1, while the octave of the highest C has number 8. All notes from C up to the next octave have the same number (e.g., C1, D1, E1, F1, G1, A1 og B1). These are the most common octaves and their numbers:

4. Half steps and whole steps

The distance between each of the twelve different notes is called a half step , or, a semitone . That is, the distance from any white or black key on the piano to the key immediately to its right or left, is a half step.

The distance between the natural notes E and F and the natural notes B and C is a half step (1), while the distance between all other keys is two half steps (2):

The distance of two half steps is also called a whole step or a whole tone .

Piano Notes

Nidhi Bhatnagar

March 30, 2023

Learning to play the piano is an exciting journey, but reading sheet music poses a serious challenge to most students. After all, if you’re looking at written music and can’t name one note, it’s easy to become discouraged. But with some focus and determination, it’s entirely possible to learn to read sheet music fairly quickly. If you’re looking to learn piano notes and how to read them, this article is a great place to start.

Learning Notes on Piano: a Primer

To really learn the notes on the piano, you need to understand the names of the notes on the keyboard as well as how to recognize them on sheet music. And to understand these things, you first need to know a bit about the musical alphabet.

1. Introducing The Musical Alphabet

Before we start looking at the piano keyboard, it’s important to have a general sense of the musical alphabet or the names of all the notes used in Western music.

The natural notes (notes excluding sharps and flats) of the musical alphabet are A B C D E F G. After G, the alphabet simply starts over at A — there’s no H! Here’s the musical alphabet complete with sharps:

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#

The above musical alphabet contains all the note names. The distance between each note listed is called a half step — this is a term you may hear if you decide to study more music theory. If you move two half steps, that’s a whole step.

You probably noticed that some notes do not have a sharp between them. On the keyboard, these notes are two adjacent white keys with no black key between them.

Before we continue, it’s important to understand that sharp notes are the same as the flat version of the next note. So for example, A sharp (A#) is the same as B flat (Bb). Here’s a quick list of equivalent notes:

If you want to learn more, check out this helpful video for a quick intro to the musical alphabet!

2. Notes On The Piano Keyboard: White Keys

Most of the white keys on the piano keyboard are natural notes or those with no sharps or flats. The first note most music students learn is middle C . To find it on your keyboard or piano, look at the middle of the keyboard. You should see two white keys next to one another. Middle C is the one to the right. It’s also illustrated in the picture below.

If you continue hitting white keys to the left or right of middle C, you will eventually hit C again, but at a lower or higher pitch. That’s because, in music, the alphabet repeats itself. And since the distance between middle C and the next higher or lower C is eight notes, each iteration of the musical alphabet is an octave . Octaves are a lot easier to visualize on the piano, as they are just groups of eight white keys:

Each octave contains eight whole steps and 12 half steps. On the piano, a half step just means moving to the next key. Sometimes that next key will be a black key *like when you move from A to A sharp). But sometimes it will be another white key (like when you move from B to C).

3. Notes On The Piano Keyboard: Black Keys

The black piano keys are known as “accidentals.” In terms of the musical alphabet, black keys will appear anywhere there is a sharp between two natural notes.

As we mentioned above, any sharp note in music also has a corresponding flat note. Though their names are different, these notes sound the same. The above picture shows you the sharp and flat names for each black key in an octave.

When you think about learning all the notes on the piano, it can feel overwhelming. Just remember that the piano is made up of a series of octaves — once you cycle through all the notes in the musical alphabet, that cycle just repeats itself again.

4. Introducing Piano Sheet Music

Some players new to piano avoid reading piano sheet music. But if you want to go far as a piano player, taking the time to read music is essential. While guitar players often use tablature , a simplified musical notation, there’s no similar notation for pianists. Chances are good that if you want to learn to play a new piece of music, you’ll need to be able to read sheet music.

If you’re just learning to read sheet music, you’ve probably noticed two lines of music. Each is called a staff . The line of music at the top is headed by a treble clef (Image Left). And the line beneath is headed by a bass clef symbol. (Image Right)

As you can tell by the names, notes under the treble clef are higher in pitch and usually played with the right hand. Notes under the bass clef are lower in pitch and are usually played with your left hand. The two staves help you play with your right hand and your left hand at the same time .

Playing two notes at once may sound like a challenge, especially if you’re just learning to read music. But don’t worry — most beginners start playing one staff at a time. When the treble and bass staffs are combined, they form what is called a “grand staff.”

Before we continue, it’s important to know that piano players use an easy numbering system for fingers. As you’re learning to read sheet music, some pieces will use these finger numbers to help you learn how to play a piece. Here are the finger numbers (they are the same for each hand):

• Index finger: 2
• Middle finger: 3
• Ring finger: 4
• Pinky finger: 5

5. Piano Notes On The Treble Clef Stave

Now you have a sense of all the notes on the piano keyboard. But how are they written on sheet music? Note names are different on the treble clef and the bass clef, so really understanding how to read sheet music for piano can take some time. Let’s start with the notes on the treble clef.

As you learn to read notes on the treble clef , there are a couple of mnemonic devices that may help you. The notes on the five lines of the staff from bottom to top are E G B D F. You can remember this as “every good boy deserves fudge.” (Some music teachers use “every good boy does fine” as an alternative to “every good boy deserves fudge.”)

For the note names in spaces between bar lines, you get F A C E from bottom to top. This is fairly easy to remember as “FACE.”

The picture below shows you what the C major scale looks like on both sheet music and on the keyboard. It’s a good introduction to what notes look like on the keyboard vs. on sheet music:

If you print out some blank staff paper (often found as a free download on many different websites), you may find it helpful to label the notes in pencil. Just writing the note names can help you remember them. And once you’ve labeled the note locations, you can keep them as a handy reference as you learn to play from sheet music.

6. Piano Notes On The Bass Clef Stave

You already know that the low notes appear on the bass clef stave or the line of music under the treble stave. It’s easy to assume that the note names on this stave are just like those on the treble stave.

From bottom to top, the notes on the lines of the staff are G B D F A. Though it’s a little similar to the treble clef mnemonic, you can remember this one as “Good Boys Deserve Fudge Always.”

In the spaces between lines, from bottom to top, the notes are A C E G. You can remember this one as “All Cows Eat Grass.” (The note immediately above the A-line of the staff itself is B, so it can be helpful to add a B after “All Cows Eat Grass.”).

If you have trouble remembering which note goes where on the staff , it can be helpful to know that the two dots on the bass clef are on either side of the line for F.

The image below illustrates the note names on both the bass clef and the treble clef. As you can see, the two share one note in common: middle C.

You found middle C earlier and saw that it essentially divides the piano in two. Music on the bass clef is almost always played to the left of middle C, while the music on the treble clef is to the right.

7. Whole Notes, Half Notes, And More

In order to be able to read piano music, you don’t just need to know the note names. You’ll also need to learn about whole notes, half notes, etc., and how many beats each one lasts. Here’s a breakdown of the note values you need to learn:

• Whole notes – Whole notes last four beats.
• Half notes – Half notes last two beats, or half of a whole note.
• Quarter notes – These are what most people picture when they imagine music notes. Each quarter note is one beat or a quarter of a whole note.
• Eighth notes – Eighth notes last half a beat. They are fairly easily recognizable thanks to their “flags.”
• Sixteenth notes – Sixteenth notes are a quarter of a beat.
• Thirty-second notes and sixty-fourth notes –  These generally only appear in more advanced pieces of music.

This helpful image shows you what each note type looks like and breaks down the relationship between them:

You may sometimes see a note with a dot next to it. The dot adds half of the note’s value. Say you see a dotted half note. The value of a half note is two beats. So you add one beat (half of two). So the dotted half note should last three beats.

8. Learning About Rests

Now you have some understanding of different music notes and what they mean. But as you begin reading music, you’ll soon see that you need to know how long to pause before playing the next note. That’s what rests tell you.

Each note value we mentioned earlier has a corresponding rest value :

• Whole rest – Pause for four beats.
• Half rest – Pause for two beats.
• Quarter rest – Pause for one beat.
• Eighth rest – Pause for half of a beat.
• Sixteenth rest – Pause for a quarter of a beat.

The above illustration shows you rest types and what they look like. Please note that while it includes thirty-second and sixty-fourth rests, these are not commonly used .

9. What’s A Time Signature?

Reading piano notes is one thing, but you need a time signature to tell you how beats are grouped. You probably can already see that sheet music is divided into measures using vertical lines.

Time signatures are written with two numbers, one over the other. The upper number will tell you how many beats are in a measure. The lower number will tell you what counts as a beat. So for example, if your time signature is 3/4, the 3 tells you there are three beats per measure. The 4 tells you that a quarter note is one beat.

You may sometimes see a symbol that looks like image on below left. This indicates “common time,” or a 4/4 time signature. That just means that there are four beats per measure and that a quarter note counts as a beat.

10. The Importance Of Dynamic Marks

Reading music for the piano often requires you to go beyond the basics. When composers create a piece, they often want to include some direction on how to play certain notes. If you’re very new to piano, you may not see a whole lot of dynamic marks . (Image Above Right). But just in case, here are some common ones:

• piano (p) — play softly
• forte (f) — play loudly
• pianissimo (pp) — play very softly
• fortissimo (ff) — play very loudly
• crescendo (cresc.) — play gradually louder
• decrescendo (decres.) — play gradually softer

11. Going Forward

Learning to read sheet music for piano might seem overwhelming. But if you want to eventually be able to sight-read music or start playing with other instruments, being able to read music is an important start. Learning new songs gets a lot easier, too.

Eventually, your ability to read notes will seem to come from muscle memory. But as you learn, be sure to be patient with yourself. Some players find that placing stickers on the keys with the names of the notes works well, while others may want to hang a chart or poster with the note names. For some tips on learning and remembering notes on the piano, check out this video.

Regardless of your preferred method of memorizing the note names, one of the best ways to really become competent at reading sheet music is just to practice . As you’re learning, many courses or instructional books will include simple practice exercises that include a few notes at a time. These exercises can be helpful, as can finding easy sheet music online.

However, if you find sheet music to practice with, always make sure you listen to the piece you’re playing. That will help you double-check your playing for timing and accuracy .

Want Some More Guidance?

Learning music is certainly rewarding. And while teaching yourself piano is possible, having guidance from a qualified instructor can make the difference between hitting a plateau and continuing to improve. You don’t need to seek out in-person piano lessons, either: there’s a wealth of online courses out there that can help you learn to play piano in any genre you wish.

Final Thoughts

Lots of people enjoy the sound of piano music, and now you’re well on your way to being able to play it! Learning piano notes on both sheet music and on the piano itself is a major accomplishment. What do you think? Do you have any helpful tips we left out? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to like and share if you found it useful!

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Musical notes and their names

There are in total twelve tones (or notes), but at the same time seventeen note names. The reason behind this is that five of the tones, so-called enharmonic notes, can be referred to two different names.

List of all the notes

• C# (c sharp)
• Db (d flat)
• D# (d sharp)
• Eb (e flat)
• F# (f sharp)
• Gb (g flat)
• G# (g sharp)
• Ab (a flat)
• A# (a sharp)
• Bb (b flat)

Short explanation of every tone

C: is played on the white key on the keyboard, positioned before the two following black keys. The note is repeated on several octaves (the interval between two notes of the same kind); therefore you can play C on many keys – how many depends on the size of the keyboard. The C note can also be written in its enharmonic version B# . The note is preceded by B and followed by C# / Db on the keyboard. A whole step up the would lead to the D note. C# / Db: these are actually the same notes, but are named differently depending on the musical context. If the C is raised one half-tone it should be referred to as C# and if the D is lowered one half-tone it should be referred to as Db . D: is played on the white key on the keyboard positioned between the pair of two black keys. The note is repeated on several octaves; therefore you can play D on many keys on the piano.

The note is preceded by C# / Db and followed by D# / Eb on the keyboard. A whole step up would lead to the E note. D# / Eb : these are the same notes and named differently depending on the musical context. If the D is raised one half-tone it should be referred to as D# and if the E is lowered one half-tone it should be referred to as Eb . E: is played on the white key on the keyboard positioned after the pair of two black keys. The note is repeated on several octaves; therefore you can play E on many keys on the piano. The E note can also be written in its enharmonic version Fb . The note is preceded by D# / Eb and followed by F on the keyboard. A whole step up would lead to the F# note. F: is played on the white key on the keyboard positioned before the three following black keys. The note is repeated on several octaves; therefore you can play F on many keys on the piano. The F note can also be written in its enharmonic version E# . The note is preceded by E and followed by F# / Gb on the keyboard. A whole step up would lead to the G note. F# / Gb: these are the same notes and named differently depending on the musical context. If the F is raised one half-tone it should be referred to as F# and if the G is lowered one half-tone it should be referred to as Gb . G: is played on the white key on the keyboard positioned between the first and second of three black keys. The note is repeated on several octaves; therefore you can play G on many keys on the piano. The note is preceded by F# / Gb and followed by G# / Ab on the keyboard. A whole step up would lead to the A note. G# / Ab: these are the same notes and named differently depending on the musical context. If the G is raised one half-tone it should be referred to as G# and if the A is lowered one half-tone it should be referred to as Ab . A: is played on the white key on the keyboard positioned between the second and third of three black keys. The note is repeated on several octaves; therefore you can play A on many keys on the piano. The note is preceded by G# / Ab and followed by A# / Bb on the keyboard. A whole step up would lead to the B note. A# / Bb: these are the same notes and named differently depending on the musical context. If the A is raised one half-tone it should be referred to as A# and if the B is lowered one half-tone it should be referred to as Bb . B: is played on the white key on the keyboard positioned after the group of three black keys. The note is repeated on several octaves; therefore you can play B on many keys on the piano. The B note can also be written in its enharmonic version Cb . The note is preceded by A# / Bb and followed by C on the keyboard. A whole step up would lead to the C# note.

Musical notes on different instruments

You may change instrument, but you would still use the same note. At least some of them – numerous instruments do not include all notes. A harmonica, for example, are in some cases tuned in a specific key and, in addition, does only include notes of a diatonic scale . With instruments such as piano or guitar, on the other hand, you can play all notes chromatically (i.e. in succession), if you wish.

The cultural influence

Western music is dictated of a tradition with 12 different tones. But this is due to the cultural influence and not a necessity. In Arabic music there are 17 (or 24) notes and in Indian music there are even more depending on how tones are defined.

Musical Notes - Everything You Need To Know

Read Time:  7 Minutes

Note Names & How To Read Them

We write musical notes on a staff (known as a ‘stave’ in the UK). Each line or space on the staff represents a different note, and this is how we read the music note names.

There are two main types of staff we use:

The Treble Clef

The swirl in the middle of this clef points to the line for the note G above middle C (C4 on the keyboard). This clef is used for the right hand on the piano or high-pitched instruments like the flute.

We can use mnemonics to help remember the order of the notes, like so:

For the lines: E very G ood B oy D eserves F ruit

And for the spaces, the word F A C E .

The Bass Clef

The swirl on this clef points to F below middle C. This clef is used for the left hand on the piano or lower-pitched instruments like the cello.

Some mnemonics to help remember this clef:

For the lines: G ood B oys D on’t F ight A nymore

And for the spaces: A ll C ows E at G rass

Types of Notes - Beats & Length

While the position on the staff tells us the pitch of musical notes, their shape will tell us their ‘value’, or how long the note is. There are 6 main types of music notes. We’ll use the American names for the notes, with the British name in brackets.

Whole Note (Semibreve)

This note lasts for 4 beats. A lot of music has 4 beats per bar, so this note would last for one whole bar. The oval shape is called the ‘head’.

Half Note (Minim)

This note is half the value – it lasts for 2 beats. Notice it has grown a stem from its head. The stem should point upwards on the right side if the note is below the middle line (B in treble clef), or downwards on the left side if the note is above the middle line. If it’s in the middle, either can be used.

Quarter Note (Crotchet)

Halved again, this note lasts for one beat. It still has a stem and is now colored in.

Eighth Note (Quaver)

You guessed it – this note lasts for half a beat, so two of them together would take up one beat. The stem has the addition of a tail on the end. 

When we have multiple eighth notes next to each other, we can join them together with a beam. We use beams to make these smaller notes easier to read and to make it clearer where the beat is. All notes with tails can be beamed together, no matter their type.  

Sixteenth Note (Semiquaver)

This note lasts for a quarter of a beat, so four of them would take up one beat. The stem now has a second tail on it, and we’ll use two beams.

32nd note (Demisemiquaver)

Don’t worry, you likely won’t need any smaller types of notes than these. This lasts for an eighth of a beat, so eight of them would take up one beat. The stem has 3 tails, and we’ll use 3 beams.

Types of Notes - Accidentals

Musical notes can have their pitch modified by an ‘accidental’. 

If we write out all notes without an accidental, we get the C major scale or all the white keys on the piano.

To use other notes (like the black keys) we need to add accidentals.

Let’s run through different types of accidental and how they the affect the pitch of different notes.

The sharp symbol moves a note up one half step, also called a semitone in British English. This is one note upwards on the piano keyboard.

You can remember it by the fact a shaRp moves a note to the Right on the keyboard.

For example, C with a sharp becomes C♯. 

In musical notation these notes would be represented as:

The flat symbol moves a note down one half step (or one semitone).

You can remember it as a fLat moves to the Left on the keyboard.

For example, B becomes B♭.

On the piano these would be the following notes:

Which in musical notation are represented as:

Key Signatures & Notes

You will see sharps or flats added at the front of the staff on every new line of notation. This is called the ‘key signature’. The key signature tells us that all music notes on that line/space will be either be sharp or flat, according to the symbol used. 

For example D Major, which has two sharps (F# and C#) is written as the below.

We can also use notes outside of the key signature by adding a sharp or flat just before them. For example, the key of C has no sharps or flats. However we can add a G# and Bb using accidentals, as below.

What if our key signature tells us to use F♯, but we just want to use a normal F? This is where the natural sign comes into play.

The natural sign cancels out any sharp or flat, so F♯ moves down a half step and becomes F♮.

Double Sharp

We can also double up accidentals. Two sharps together make a double sharp, which means the note moves up two half steps (or a tone). 

There isn’t a way to type the double sharp, so we usually use ‘x’ or ‘♯♯’ instead.

An example would be, if we applied a double sharp to G, this would become G♯♯, which makes it the same pitch as A (by moving up two half steps). 

Double Flat

A double flat moves a note down two half steps (or a tone). 

For example, B♭♭ is also equivalent to A.

The reason we use double sharps and flats gets a bit complicated, but it mainly has to do with scales.

For example, the harmonic minor scale has a sharpened 7th note. If that note was already a sharp note such as F♯, we would need to sharpen it AGAIN to make the scale.

To summarize this all, there are three different pieces of information we can learn about musical notes by looking at them in notation.

• The pitch. We can tell the pitch of the note by which line or space it occupies on the staff. This could be a treble clef staff for higher-pitched instruments or a bass clef staff for lower ones.
• The value (length). We can tell how many beats a note lasts by its shape. Whether the head is colored in, whether it has a stem, whether it has tails, how many tails it has…
• Whether the pitch is altered. The position on the staff tells us the pitch, but this can be altered by symbols like flats or sharps. Sharps move up a half step, flats move down a half step.

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Piano Notes: How to Find and Read Notes (Piano Note Chart Included!)

The piano is a versatile instrument with a wide range of notes.

A modern 88-key standard piano or a 108-key extended piano is tuned in a twelve-tone equal temperament. Every octave consists of twelve steps, known as semitones. Learn about musical intervals here.

A specific formula determines the frequency of each key. The 49th key, which is the fifth A (A4), is tuned to 440 Hz, commonly referred to as A440. Every time you move up an octave, the frequency doubles. For example, the fifth A is 440 Hz, and the sixth A is 880 Hz.

The frequency of a pitch can be derived by multiplying (for ascending notes) or dividing (for descending notes) the frequency of the previous pitch by the twelfth root of two (approximately 1.059463). 

This ensures that the frequency ratio between any two adjacent keys is consistent across the keyboard.

In the real world, pianos don’t always adhere strictly to this mathematical model. 

Due to the physical properties of piano strings, there’s a phenomenon called inharmonicity, where the harmonic components of a note might not align perfectly with the expected frequencies. 

To account for this, piano tuners might slightly adjust (or “stretch”) the tuning of some notes.

How Do You Find Middle C On The Piano?

Finding Middle C on a piano is a pretty straightforward process. 

• ** Find the Center of the Piano **: Position yourself at the center of the keyboard. If you’re sitting in front of a grand or upright piano, this is generally where the piano’s brand name is located.
• ** Locate the Groupings of Black Keys **: The piano’s black keys are grouped in twos and threes. 
• ** Locate Middle C **: Middle C is the white key immediately to the left of the group of two black keys closest to the center of the piano.

If you’re using a standard 88-key piano, Middle C is the 40th key from the leftmost note (an A note).

The C note is always four keys to the left of the first F above it and nine keys to the right of the first F below it.

Once you’ve located Middle C a few times, it will become second nature to find it quickly!

Getting into the theory side, Middle C is often referred to as “C4” in scientific pitch notation because it’s the fourth C on a standard 88-key piano. 

It is a central reference point for musicians, especially when reading sheet music, as it’s approximately in the middle of the grand staff (between the treble and bass clefs).

Where Is Middle C On Other-Sized Pianos?

The location of Middle C can vary depending on the size and type of the piano or keyboard. 

88-Key Piano

Middle C is the 40th key from the leftmost note (A).

76-Key Keyboard

Middle C is usually the 36th key from the leftmost note.

61-Key Keyboard

Middle C is typically the 28th key from the leftmost note.

49-Key Keyboard

Middle C is generally the 24th key from the leftmost note.

37-Key Keyboard

Middle C is usually the 19th key from the leftmost note.

Toy pianos often have fewer keys, and the location of Middle C will depend on the specific range of the instrument. It’s usually near the center.

Extended Pianos

Some grand pianos have extended ranges, going beyond the standard 88 keys. 

In these cases, Middle C’s position will be relative to the total number of keys but will generally remain in the center of the keyboard.

Digital Pianos and Synthesizers

On digital pianos and synthesizers with fewer keys, Middle C might be labeled, or you may need to use octave shift buttons to access it.

Tips for Finding Middle C

• Look for Labels : Some keyboards label Middle C as “C4.”
• Use Black Keys as a Guide : Middle C is always to the left of a set of two black keys.
• Check the Manual : If you need clarification, the manual for your instrument will usually indicate where Middle C is located.

What Are The Black Keys On A Piano?

The black keys on a piano are the sharp and flat notes. They are raised and set back from the white keys and grouped in twos and threes across the keyboard. Here’s a breakdown of the black keys:

Sharps (♯) : A sharp raises a note by a half step. The black key to the right of a C is C♯.

Flats (♭) : A flat lowers a note by a half step. The black key to the left of a D is D♭.

It’s essential to understand that each black key can be named in two ways, depending on the context:

• The black key to the right of A can be called A♯ (A sharp) or B♭ (B flat).
• The black key to the right of C can be called C♯ (C sharp) or D♭ (D flat).
• The black key to the right of D can be called D♯ (D sharp) or E♭ (E flat).
• The black key to the right of F can be called F♯ (F sharp) or G♭ (G flat).
• The black key to the right of G can be called G♯ (G sharp) or A♭ (A flat).

This dual naming system is due to the concept of “enharmonic equivalence” in music theory, where two notes sound the same but are named differently based on their musical context (which key the music is in).

Piano Notes on Sheet Music

Sheet music is a written representation of musical compositions. It uses symbols to represent the sounds of music, including pitches, rhythms, dynamics, and other musical elements.

Notes represent sounds or pitches. The type of note (whole, half, quarter, eighth, etc.) indicates its duration, while its position on the staff indicates its pitch.

Piano music is typically written on a grand staff, which consists of two staves (plural of staff) joined by a brace. The upper staff uses the treble clef, and the lower staff uses the bass clef. This allows for a wide range of notes to be represented, from the lower notes played by the left hand to the higher notes played by the right hand.

Middle C serves as a reference point between the treble and bass clefs. On the treble clef, it’s the note just below the bottom line, while on the bass clef, it’s the note just above the top line.

When notes go beyond the range of the staff, small lines called ledger lines are used. For example, notes higher than the treble clef staff or lower than the bass clef staff will be placed on or between these ledger lines.

In piano music, you’ll often see multiple notes stacked on top of each other. These are chords, and they’re played simultaneously. How the notes are stacked will give you an idea of the hand shape required to play them.

Some piano sheet music, especially for beginners, includes finger numbers (1 through 5) to indicate which finger should play a particular note. There might also be indications for hand position changes.

There is much more to learn about sheet music, which we will cover in a different lesson.

Go to next lesson: Fretboard Fundamentals: Decoding The Notes Of The Guitar Fretboard

Go to previous lesson: What are Whole Steps (Whole Tones) and Half Steps (Semitones)?

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• Piano Chords for Beginners: What You Need to Know

Chords define the harmony of a song, and are made by playing more than one note at the same time. They can be simple or complicated, but even beginner piano chords can create fun and exciting music. In fact, there are very few songs that don’t use chords in some way, especially in rock music!

Click or tap below to jump to a piano chord section.

• Common piano chords chart

What is a piano chord?

• Standard piano notes

Piano note chart

• Major piano chords
• Minor piano chords
• Diminished piano chords
• Augmented piano chords

Common Piano Chords Chart

When it comes to playing the piano, pianists have thousands of chords to select from, with some chords being more popular than others. Check out some of the most common chords in the piano chord chart below, or keep reading to find out more about piano chords.

The most common piano chords include:

• A major (A). A - C# - E
• A minor (Am). A - C - E
• C major (C). C - E - G
• C minor (Cm). C - Eb - G
• D major (D). D - F# - A
• D minor (Dm). D - F - A
• E major (E). E - G# - B
• E minor (Em). E - G - B
• F major (F). F - A - C
• F minor (Fm). F - Ab - C
• G major (G). G - B - D
• G minor (Gm). G - Bb - D

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A chord is created when more than one note is played at once, and contains two, three, or more individual notes. On the piano, this means you push down more than one key at the same time.

All piano chords contain a root note -- this is the note the chord is named after -- as well as one or more additional notes. Basic piano chords often consist of only two or three notes, while the more advanced chords tend to incorporate even more notes.

The most common type of keyboard or piano chord is a triad, or three-note chord. A triad contains a root note and two other notes, most often the notes that produce the intervals of a third and fifth above the root note.

The most common type of keyboard or piano chord is a triad, or three-note chord.

One way to get the basic shape of a triad is to place your thumb and fingers on adjacent white keys and push down with your thumb, middle finger, and pinky. Learning this technique will set you up to play various basic piano chords with ease.

What are piano intervals?

The distance between piano notes (called an interval) determines how they sound when played together. Intervals are measured in half-steps and whole-steps.

• Half-steps. A half-step is the distance from one key to the next key immediately to its right or left.
• Whole-steps. A whole-step is the distance of two half-steps.
• Common intervals. A common interval used in piano chords is the major third, which is the distance of two whole-steps or four half-steps.

What are the standard piano notes?

Piano notes follow a pattern of black and white keys, with a group of two black keys close together followed by a group of three black keys close together. This pattern repeats across the keyboard, and we use it to identify the notes.

Each of the white keys is assigned a letter name from A to G, and each of the black keys is called a sharp or flat.

What are sharp and flat piano notes?

Sharp or flat piano notes are named for what letter name they’re immediately above (to the right on the keyboard) or below (to the left).

Reading sharp piano notes

The black key immediately to the right of the key “C” is called “C#,” pronounced “c sharp.”

Reading flat piano notes

The black key immediately to the left of “B” is called “Bb,” pronounced “b flat.”

This piano note chart introduces all the different notes you’ll find on your keyboard, and is essential for understanding how the space between the notes you play will determine the type of piano chord that is produced.

What are major piano chords?

The most common triad, or three-note chord, is the major chord. Their popularity and versatility make them great piano chords for beginners to learn first.

Pro Tip: Listen to your favorite rock songs!

Chords are used in almost every song you hear. The opening chord of “Let It Be” by The Beatles is a C major chord. Listen to some of your favorite songs and see if you can hear the sound of major chords.

How do you play a major chord on the piano?

To play a major chord, begin by choosing a root note, which can be any of the keyboard notes From the root note, count up two whole steps. This note is the “third,” named for being the third note in the key beginning with the root note. From the third, count up one-and-a-half steps, or three half steps. This note is the “fifth.”

When you play these three keyboard notes together, you hear a major triad, which has a happy sound. Major keyboard chords are used in almost every rock and pop song.

Common major piano chords include:

• C# major (C#) . C# - E# - G#
• Eb major (Eb). Eb - G - Bb
• F# major (F#). F# - A# - C#
• Ab major (Ab). Ab - C - Eb
• Bb major (Bb). Bb - D - F
• B major (B). B - D# - F#

What are intervals called in a major scale?

The intervals in a major chord are called a “major third,” the distance from the root note to the third, and a “perfect fifth,” the distance from the root to the fifth. We counted the steps from the root to the third and the third to the fifth. To find the interval of a perfect fifth above the root note, count three-and-a-half steps, or a total of seven half-steps.

What are minor piano chords?

Minor chords, like major chords, contain three basic keyboard notes: a root note, a third, and a fifth. To play a minor chord, select any root note, then count three half-steps up to the third. From the third, count two whole-steps (or four half steps) to find the fifth. 

Minor chords are also very common in rock and pop music. “Comfortably Numb” is an example of a rock song that begins with a minor chord. Most rock and pop songs use a mixture of major and minor piano chords.

The third interval in a minor chord is called a “minor third.” The fifth interval in a minor chord is the same as in a major chord, the interval of a “perfect fifth.”

Common minor piano chords include:

• C# minor (C#m). C# - E - G#
• D minor (Dm). D - F -A
• Eb minor (Ebm). Eb - Gb - Bb
• F# minor (F#m). F# - A - C#
• Ab minor (Abm). Ab - Cb - Eb
• Bb minor (Bbm). Bb - Db - F
• B minor (Bm). B - D - F#

What are diminished piano chords?

The diminished triad uses a minor third, and a lowered fifth, called a “diminished fifth.” A diminished fifth is three whole-steps, or six half-steps, above the root note. To find the notes of a diminished chord, count a step-and-a-half from the root to the third, and then a step-and-a-half from the third to the fifth. 

Are diminished chords used in rock songs?

Diminished keyboard chords are less common than major and minor chords, but are still frequently used in rock and pop songs. They have a spooky, tense sound. The most common use of a diminished chord is to transition between two other, more stable-sounding chords. You can hear a diminished chord used in this way in the song “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys. 

Common diminished piano chords include:

• C diminished (Cdim). C - Eb - Gb
• C# diminished (C#dim). C# - E - G
• D diminished (Ddim). D - F - Ab
• D# diminished (D#dim). D# - F# - A
• E diminished (Edim). E - G - Bb
• F diminished (Fdim). F - Ab - Cb
• F# diminished (F#dim). F# - A - C
• G diminished (Gdim). G - Bb - Db
• G# diminished (G#dim). G# - B - D
• A diminished (Adim). A - C - Eb
• A# diminished (A#dim). A# - C# - E
• B diminished (Bdim). B - D - F

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What are augmented piano chords?

Augmented chords use a major third and a raised, or “augmented fifth.” The interval of an augmented fifth is four whole-steps, or eight half-steps up from the root note. Augmented chords have a very distinct, unusual sound to most peoples’ ears.

Like diminished chords, augmented chords are most often used to transition between more stable sounds in rock and pop music. One example of this is the song “Crying” performed by Roy Orbison, where an augmented chord is used in the pre-chorus.

Common augmented piano chords include:

• C augmented (Caug). C - E - G#
• C# augmented (C#aug). C# - E# - G##
• D augmented (Daug). D - F# - A#
• D# augmented (D#aug). D# - F## - A##
• E augmented (Eaug). E - G# - B#
• F augmented (Faug). F - A - C#
• F# augmented (F#aug). F# - A# - C##
• G augmented (Gaug). G - B - D#
• G# augmented (G#aug). G# - B# - D##
• A augmented (Aaug). A - C# - E#
• A# augmented (A#aug). A# - C## - E##
• B augmented (Baug). B - D# - F##


Ready to play Piano?

Learning the different types of chords and how to play them on the piano is a lot of fun, and opens up doors to understanding and playing all types of music. As you learn more songs, and even write your own, you’ll find endless combinations of piano or keyboard chords that create different sounds and moods. 

At School of Rock, our students are able to learn theory, apply what they learn to their instrument, rehearse with a band, and then get on stage and perform a rock concert! Piano lessons are a great way to learn to play and understand music, although, without a concrete goal to work toward, it’s common for piano and keyboard students to only learn the most basic piano chords or parts of songs.

Having a concert to perform with your friends at School of Rock is an effective way to motivate yourself to practice hard, learn songs from beginning to end, and achieve a personal best each season.

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32 Easy Piano Songs for Beginners You Can Learn Today

One of the best things about learning piano is how quickly and easily you can get started. Unlike string instruments where you have to learn how to use your hands to fret or pluck strings first, you can start playing the piano just by hitting the right keys. That means there are loads of easy piano songs you can learn today.

In this guide, we’ve collected 32 easy songs to get you started. You don’t need to know how to read sheet music. We have included tutorials for all of the songs.

There is something for everyone, with soundtracks and popular songs on this list. There is also some classical music that sounds complicated and impressive, even if you are a novice piano player.

The Common Chords

There are thousands of chords and chord variations. Luckily, you only need to know a handful to play some beautiful yet easy piano songs. Loads of piano pieces and popular songs are just made up of these common chords.

Most people start with “triad” chords. These are all made up of patterns of three notes on the keyboard.

Chords that aren’t on this list are easy to look up online. Don’t fret if you see a chord you don’t recognize.

The notes of these chords are usually played all at the same time. In some songs, you cycle through the notes of a chord. These are called “arpeggios” Chords are not the only thing to understand when it comes to playing songs on the piano.

Melodies are played by learning individual notes and playing them one at a time in rhythm. If you want to play piano songs for beginners that sound impressive, the melody will usually be crucial. 

Chords are often more of an accompaniment to singing, whereas the melody or the “hook” is what people recognize.As you get better at playing the piano, you will learn to incorporate both left hand and right hand. The left will normally be playing a bass line or chords, while the right plays the melody.

Practice Tips to Learn Songs Faster

As well as finding easy songs to learn, should consider the following tips to streamline the process further and be playing full songs in virtually no time:

• Learn in sections: It helps to break the song down into a number of sections and learn these individually. Intro, verse, chorus. Don’t try to learn in a “linear” way and go from start to finish. A section at a time is easier for the brain.
• Start with the right hand : Don’t try to combine both hands too quickly. This can be tough to coordinate, especially at the beginning. Just focus on the right-hand melody first, and then combine chords if needed.
• Choose songs you like : This is more of a motivation tip. You’re less likely to stick at it if you don’t enjoy the song.
• Slow things down: Learning the song slower than you’re used to hearing it makes it easier to learn the notes and moving between them. Use YouTube’s “playback speed” control if needed.

12 Super Easy Piano Songs

1. twinkle twinkle little star – nursery rhyme.

This is a great piano song for kids to learn. Easy, fun, and a song that everyone knows.

Difficulty score: 2/10 Impress score: 4/10

2. Happy Birthday To You

Happy Birthday is not just a great song to learn because it is easy, it’s one of the most useful pieces of piano music! Get everyone to sing along when it is someone’s birthday.

3. If You’re Happy and You Know It

Difficulty score: 1/10 Impress score: 4/10

4. Chopsticks

What a fun song this is for beginners. There are probably millions of people who learned chopsticks as their first-ever piano piece. It may be simple, but it’s effective, and you can sound great in minutes.

5. Fur Elise – Beethoven

Most people are really excited when they realize they can play a Beethoven song as one of the first in their songbook. Fur Elise, a lovesong by the renowned composer, has a surprisingly simple motif running through it. 

Difficulty score: 2/10 Impress score: 6/10

6. Jingle Bells

You might feel a bit silly learning Jingle Bells in 11 months of the year, but when the holiday season rolls around it is great to know a festive song.

Difficulty score: 2/10 Impress score: 5/10

7. Fly Me To The Moon – Frank Sinatra

8. somewhere over the rainbow – israel kamakawiwoʻole.

This is a really popular beginner song for ukulele, but your piano teacher might get you to play this as one of your first songs too. 

9. Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen (C, Am, F, G, E7)

Difficulty score: 3/10 Impress score: 7/10

10. Let it Be – The Beatles (C, G, Am, F)

Difficulty score: 3/10 Impress score: 6/10

11. Look What You Made Me Do – Taylor Swift

One of the easiest pop songs you will ever find. Catchy, and it’s great to sing along to.

12. Part Of Your World – The Little Mermaid

15 medium easy piano songs, 1. coldplay – the scientist ( dm7, a#, f, fsus2).

Difficulty score: 4/10 Impress score: 8/10

2. Lean on Me – Bill Withers (C, F, Em, G, G7)

This Bill Withers classic is pretty simple, especially if you can handle quick chord changes. There are some more intricate fills you can add in, but they’re optional for beginners.

Difficulty score: 5/10 Impress score: 8/10

3. Minuet in G – Bach

4. Canon in D – Pachabel

Difficulty score: 5/10 Impress score: 7/10

5. What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong (F, Am, Dm, Am, Gm)

Difficulty score: 4/10 Impress score: 7/10

6. Let Her Go – Passenger (D, C, Em, G, Bm)

7. jar of hearts – christina perri (bm, d, a, em, g), 8. africa – toto, 9. imagine – john lennon (c, cmaj7, f, e, e7), 10. mad world – gary jules (fm, a#, g#, d#), 11. how to save a life – the fray (a#, f, gm, f, d#), 12. nocturne op. 9 no. 2 – chopin.

This is one of those songs that most people know the melody of, even if they don’t know it’s by Chopin. You’ll sound like a true pro if you can master this.

Difficulty score: 5/10 Impress score: 9/10

13. In The Jungle – The Lion King

14. Hedwig’s Theme – Harry Potter

15. city of stars – ryan gosling (la la land).

Ryan Gosling famously learned piano in four months by taking piano lessons for his part in La La Land. This is one of the simpler pieces in the movie. It’s pretty easy to learn this piano song, even though it sounds impressive.

5 Intermediate Easy Piano Songs

1. married life – up.

Difficulty score: 6/10 Impress score: 8/10

2. Rewrite The Stars – The Greatest Showman

Difficulty score: 7/10 Impress score: 9/10

3. Piano Man – Billy Joel (C, G, F, D7)

Difficulty score: 6/10 (depending on the arrangement) Impress score: 8/10

4. The Winner Takes It All – Abba

Difficulty score: 6/10 Impress score: 9/10

5. I’m Still Standing – Elton John

Depending on what arrangement you opt for, you might have noticed there are simple and more complex versions of most of these songs. The tutorials we’ve picked are great for learning in a simple way, but ensuring everyone can recognize what you’re playing.

You don’t have to reach a professional skill level to start enjoying full songs and playing in front of friends or family. As you can see, there are plenty of songs you can learn on a rainy afternoon.

Anna teaches piano and guitar and also has extensive experience recording music. She’s well read in music psychology and love to share the benefits of learning to play music.

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Popular songs in letter notes

Browse the most popular song letter notes for beginners to practice. The music notes below are good for flute, recorder, piano, piccolo, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, guitar, handbells, ukulele, xylophone and more 🙂

Time range:     Live |  24 hours | 7 days | 1 month | Overview

Popular: Last 7 Days

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Trending: last 24 hours.

• I Kissed a Girl – Katy Perry
• Let It Go – Frozen (Disney)
• Super Mario Bros. Theme – Nintendo
• Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid
• I See The Light – Tangled (Disney)
• We’ve only just begun – The Carpenters
• Mamma Mia – ABBA
• Immortals – Big Hero 6 / Fall Out Boy (Disney)
• Wannabe – Spice Girls
• Never Gonna Give You Up – Rick Astley

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Poplar: monthly.

• A Million Dreams – The Greatest Showman
• Love Story – Taylor Swift
• Believer – Imagine Dragons
• A Thousand Years – Christina Perri
• A Whole New World – Aladdin (Disney)
• Do Re Mi – Sound of Music

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